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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S MEDIA DAYOctober 16, 2014Suzy MerchantCHICAGO, ILLINOIS THE MODERATOR: Joining us is Coach Suzy Merchant. Coach, an opening statement. COACH MERCHANT: Just excited to be here and be part of the Big Ten Media Day and certainly with the anticipation of what the possibilities are for a new season. So we're excited. Three returning starters back and a great group of upperclassmen and vets that I think will lead us to hopefully promising places and a really, really talented group of three freshmen that came in as well. So I will open it up for questions. Q. You mentioned upperclassmen. But a couple of your kids, your freshmen last year, got playing time maybe quicker than up might think and one of them is on the All‑Big Ten Preseason Team here. But basically in the new class, do you have any surprises like that who might make real quick impacts and in what way? COACH MERCHANT: Well, certainly, I mean, we were led ‑‑ last year our two leading scorers were freshmen that led us to a Big Ten Championship in terms of scoring. But I do, I think there's two kids on our roster that are freshmen and a third depending on a little bit of how she comes along, will certainly have the opportunity to be impactful. But probably the two out of the gates that I think we'll see a lot of playing game is Jas Lumpkin and also Lexi Gussert. Those two, those kids and Kennedy Johnson, the third, all have a very high IQ for the game and pick up things very quickly. And obviously it's a very positive thing but they're also playing multiple positions. The versatility in our system and the balance that we need in order to have a really strong offensive attack is important to be able to move people around. And they've been able to do that in the first week or so of practice. That's been really impressive. I think Lexi and Jas I think you'll see significant and depending on Kennedy's development in the post, she will certainly contribute as well. Q. Last year Tori Jankoska I think you had to play a lot more minutes at point guard than maybe you would have expected one year ago at this time. How do you see her role being different this year or what do you expect out of Jankoska this year? COACH MERCHANT: I think the positive thing with Tori playing the point, is to me I've had a lot of great point guards that usually ended up being more deferring point guards, kids that defended a presence and ball presence that's the things I talked about with great ball play. High volume shooters aren't usually one of them. But with Tori at the point, she brings a nice dynamic to our offense. When we move her and Klarissa Bell last year, kind of went back and forth at the point, gave us a little bit more firepower offensively. I thought that was a big difference maker for us. Q. You've probably had more than your share of injuries over the last few years. COACH MERCHANT: You think? Q. Yeah, I do. How healthy is your team now? Do you have any physical problems? COACH MERCHANT: Yes, we have physical problems. As many of you know, I get asked a lot about Madison Williams. She's had four ACLs and a total of seven surgeries. Just had another one on Thursday to clean some things up. So bless her heart. She's really in a place right now where she's just trying to be able to live a normal life, honestly, not wake up in pain. And we lost Branndais Agee this summer, who had a great postseason, really second half of the season, but great postseason for her. She blew her ACL in the summer. That's been a little frustrating. We've had some kids nicked up a little bit, couple concussions here and there. I don't know, maybe it's something in the water in East Lansing, I'm not sure. We've had our share. But we're coming back. Those two kids obviously will be out, but everybody else is practicing and healthy at this point and/or coming back. Q. Last year the conference as a whole took a jump offensively. Some of it patterned after the rule changes. But do you see more growth, not only for your team offensively, but for the league as a whole? COACH MERCHANT: Well, definitely. I mean, I've always sort of, in my career, kind of built the foundation off the defensive side of the ball, we've been extremely successful on the defensive side. For me to try to open up things a little bit more, we've done some things in the past, I know from my perspective to grow the game a little bit and give the kids a little bit more freedom offensively. I do think the rule changes have helped, the freedom of movement, protecting the shooter, protecting the ball handler, I think, has really changed the game in a positive way. So I think for a women's basketball perspective, it was positive. I think early on, just from a fan‑‑ some of the things I heard from fans and certainly from coaches there was a lot of hand checking early until we got used to that rule which meant a lot of free throws and kind of became a free‑throw shooting contest early on. But I thought we adjusted well as a group. I thought the Big Ten Conference did a nice job with that and had some really exciting players and offensive schemes that people enjoyed watching. Q. Quick question on just your overall thoughts or I should say specific thoughts on Maryland and also on Rutgers coming to the league, what do they bring to the table and how do you adjust? COACH MERCHANT: Well, I think our league has always had a great deal of respect across the country in terms of the teams and the programs and the players in it. But to me when we've added Nebraska and now we've added Maryland and Rutgers to the league, I think from a women's basketball perspective you're adding two very tremendous programs, great veteran coaches, tremendous recruiters. Tough‑minded players. We've played at Maryland two straight years in the NCAA Tournament. So we might be the one team that actually, I won't call it an advantage, but maybe a little bit advantaged in that we've been there a couple times and have traveled and stayed there as we've played back to back years in the NCAA Tournament out there. But I love what Brenda and Vivian bring as people to the league, the respect that they have nationally in our sport. And to us as coaches, we're excited to see how that translates in the polls and in day‑to‑day grind of the season. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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